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Post by DEKE on Feb 9, 2019 19:17:20 GMT
OK, I had a slap your forehead moment about the dishwasher. It's one of those things that should have been obvious, but I never thought it through. The dishwasher was no longer cleaning the dishes.
We ran a double strength load of dishwasher soap thru an empty dishwasher and it didn't help. Next we tried CLR and that didn't help. We tried vinegar as suggested on the internet. Nothing seemed to work. So DW and I took apart everything in the insides and used screw drivers, toothpicks, and abrasive pads to clean gunk out of every crevice. We got all sorts of nasty slime out of it and I'm glad the oozing crud will no longer be coming into contact with our otherwise clean dishes.
But I got to reading and discovered why our cleaning solutions had not worked. This is the forehead slapping moment. When your dish washer first starts a normal cycle, it does a quick rinse to remove most of the food particles. So if you've poured cleaners in the bottom of the pan, all that cleaner is washed out of the system in the first minute or two. You have to get the cleaner to the scrubbing stage where the dishwasher continuously recycles the water throughout the insides.
You do this by putting an upright coffee mug on the top and bottom racks. Make sure they are secure and won't be blown over by the sprayers. Fill these mugs with white vinegar. As the dishwasher runs through its routine, water will go into the mugs and displace vinegar out. This gives you a steady supply of vinegar from start to finish.
The dishwasher is clean and it is now cleaning our dishes in its usual manner.
My computer calendar sends me an email on the first of each month to remind me to change HVAC filters, put salt in the water conditioning system, check propane levels, etc. I've added this vinegar cleaning trick to the list and hopefully the gunk will not build up again.
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Post by Ozarks Tom on Feb 9, 2019 20:42:01 GMT
Great idea! That makes sense. I'll add it to my 1st of the month list also.
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Post by ceresone on Feb 10, 2019 21:01:42 GMT
My dishwasher? While back, I opened the door to check on it,when I closed it, it flooded my house. Person looked at it and told me the pump was out. I haven't used it side, but, I am wondering, since it did finish after the flooding.. Did I do it? Is it really out? Haven't been brave enough to try again
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Post by Ozarks Tom on Feb 11, 2019 14:12:16 GMT
ceresone, Sounds to me like your drain hose has come loose or split, not hard to fix. The reason it finished washing had nothing to do with the drain line, every time it drained it refilled and worked like it's supposed to. Dishwashers have a pretty strong little pump, I can see one flooding on the drain cycle if the hose isn't there.
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Post by gob on Feb 11, 2019 14:22:53 GMT
My dish washer quit the other day too. Then I just told her to get her butt back in the kitchen.
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Post by blackfeather on Feb 11, 2019 19:01:48 GMT
My dish washer quit the other day too. Then I just told her to get her butt back in the kitchen. We have a 4 cycle dish washer all four of us takes a turn washing dishes. My son has a dishwasher. First he rinses off the dishes before putting them in. I considered the time involved between loading and unloading and I can wash dishes just as fast, if not faster than messing around with rinsing and loading the washer. With rinsing and a couple of seconds more I can have the dish clean and let it drip dry in the sink. I have no intention of spending money on a dishwasher.
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Post by joebill on Feb 19, 2019 3:29:37 GMT
And I will tell Rosa she has to drink a cup of vinegar on the first of every month....
Seriously, though, we had a house full of kids when we bought our first dishwasher and they had been doing the deed for years, but the addition of the Maytag DW eliminated a VERY high percentage of colds and flu that they brought home. Not to say that kids do not take sanitation as serious as machines, but.....well, yeah, I guess I am saying that, because that is the way it worked out.
Thinking about it, I recall doing that job as a kid and not taking it at all seriously. How many who hand wash make sure the rinse water is hot as a 6 dollar pistol? Your automatic dishwasher does......Joe
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Post by ceresone on Mar 11, 2019 15:45:04 GMT
Well,I got brave enough ! After not using it for so long,I dared. Works fine,I must have screwed something up when I opened door mid cycle. Why, after having it checked out,I was told pump was out, don't know.
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